Thilafushi ( dv, ތިލަފުށި) is an

artificial island An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those th ...

created by government decision in 1991 as a

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...

situated to the west of Malé, and is located between

Kaafu Atoll Kaafu Atoll is the code name given to an administrative division in the Republic of Maldives which consists of the geographical atolls of Kaashidhoo Island, Gaafaru, North Malé Atoll and South Malé Atoll. As the two Malé Atolls are the main is ...

's Giraavaru and Gulhifalhu of the

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

History

Thilafushi originally was a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

called "''Thilafalhu''" with a length of 7 km and a width of 200 metres at the shallowest regions. It came into existence following a series of discussions and efforts to resolve Malé's garbage predicament during the early 1990s. The decision to reclaim ''Thilafalhu'' as a landfill was made on 5 December 1991. Thilafushi received its first load of garbage from Malé on 7 January 1992. Operations started with just 1

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

, 4 heavyload

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s, 2

excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fr ...

s and a single

wheel loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery (such as a dump truck, conveyor belt, feed-hopper, or railroad car) ...

. During its early years of waste disposal operations, pits (also known as cells) with a volume of 37,500 ft³ (1060 m³) were dug, after which the sand obtained from the excavation was used to construct walled enclosures around the internal perimeter of the cells.

Waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste pr ...

received from Malé was deposited into the midst of the pit, which was topped off with a layer of construction debris and then uniformly levelled with

white sand White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. Initially there was no segregation of the waste since it had to be disposed immediately due to mass accumulation.

Industrialization

Today Thilafushi has a

landmass A landmass, or land mass, is a large region or area of land. The term is often used to refer to lands surrounded by an ocean or sea, such as a continent or a large island. In the field of geology, a landmass is a defined section of continen ...

of more than 4.6 million ft² (0.43 km²). The speedy terrestrial growth of Thilafushi was observed by the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

, and in November 1997, it was decided that land was to be leased to

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

interested in acquiring land for industrial purposes. Initially there were just 22 lease holders. Within the past 10 years, this number has doubled to 54 resulting in more than 1.2 million square feet (0.11 km² or 27.5 acres) of land being used currently, which generates an excess of 14 million

Rufiyaa The Maldivian rufiyaa ( dv, ދިވެހި ރުފިޔާ; sign: Rf or ; code: MVR) is the currency of the Maldives. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA). The most commonly used symbols for the rufiya ...

(about

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1,000,000.00) per annum. Soon after, an area of 0.2 km² (known as ''Thilafushi-2'') was reclaimed using white sand as the filling material to provide terra firma for the more heavy industries. The current (major) industrial activities in the island are boat manufacturing,

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixe ...

packing,

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane ...

gas bottling and various large scale

warehousing A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

. The government is also planning a 50-ton incinerator facility. In March 2015 the Maldivian government decided to relocate the central commercial port from Malé to Thilafushi.Government signs MoU with Dubai Ports World
Minivan News, 23 March 2015. However the deal was not completed.

Environmental issues

Environmentalists say that more than 330 tonnes of rubbish is brought to Thilafushi a day, most of which comes from Malé. In 2005 it was estimated that 31,000 truckloads of garbage are transported to Thilafushi annually, where it is dumped in large piles and eventually used to reclaim land and increase the size of the island. So much is being deposited that the island is growing at a rate of one square metre per day.''Paradise lost on Maldives' rubbish island''
Guardian, 3 January 2009. According to official statistics, a single tourist produces 3.5 kg of garbage a day, twice as much as someone from Malé and five times more than anyone from the rest of the Maldives archipelago. Altogether, that comes to "300 to 400 tons of trash" dumped on the island every day, according to Shina Ahmed, administration manager of the Thilafushi Corporation that runs the island. Ali Rilwan, an environmentalist in Malé, said that "used batteries, asbestos, lead and other potentially hazardous waste mixed with the municipal solid wastes being put into the water. Although it is a small fraction of the total, these wastes are a source of toxic heavy metals and it is an increasingly serious ecological and health problem in the Maldives". Bluepeace, the main ecological movement of the Maldives, has described the island as a "toxic bomb". After reports of illegal dumping surfaced, management was transferred to Malé City Council to clear up confusion to who could be responsible for the waste. The council signed a contract in 2011 with the Indian-based company, Tatva Global Renewable Energy to rehabilitate the island and manage the waste problem. However, the deal was never implemented due to bureaucracy and political interference, ultimately cancelling it. In December 2011 the Malé City Council temporarily banned the transporting of waste to Thilafushi because of a surge in waste floating in the island's lagoon and drifting out to sea. The cause of the floating waste has been blamed on "impatient" boat captains unable to unload their waste. In a BBC report in May 2012, the island of waste was described as "apocalyptic".''Simon Reeve visits an island of rubbish''.

BBC TWO BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

. Wednesday 25 April 2012.

History

Industrialization

Environmental issues

See also

References

Further reading